Arty question.

[12Alfa]

Thats also a question of how good the JFST is.

"Target is in the compound south of the treeline..."...*BOOM*..."No, the other one you moron!"

8-)

I have seen this in pratice also. If not lazer guided the chance of hitting a compound are slim, same for arty. :frown:

Now a hellfire is another story, that car, ok, missle away......what car.....what we have a squimer!!!:cul:

[RecceDG]

An M777 can do some amazing things though; not least of which is fast set-up time and greater accuracy than an M109.

The real advantage of a drone is that higher command echelons can have direct eyes on and a more detailed discussion can take place over fire/no fire. You aren't relying on a FOO (or a recce element talking to a FOO) at ground level IDing the target from a position of questionable visibility and potentially under fire, or a fighter jockey who just wants his bombs gone so he can get out of Dodge.

Instead, you get a bunch of people with clear minds and different perspectives who can present the boss with calm and unhurried advice - not just tactical, but also legal. There's real value in that. I have become a big fan of UAVs.

For the types of warfare simulated by this sim though, there's a lot to be said for the ability to drop tons of steel on target - and to put up with the idiosyncrasies that it takes to make that happen.

I don't think counter-battery is within the scope of SBProPE. This sim is best suited to Company and Combat Team sized scenarios or smaller. Yes, you can squeeze a Battalion sized fight into it, but that's not where it is best.

At that level, you've normally got ONE FOO. He probably has a single battery assigned to him (although he might have more if his task is the Btn or Bde main effort - and if other guns are in range and he has the targets for it, he might be able to crank up more) That battery will have a supply of ammo with it, and a subset of that ammo will be assigned to his targets. He might be allowed to tap into the reserve ammo if the situation warrants it, but the decision to release it to him won't be his. It might not even be the Arty CO's call; it might well be the Commander's decision.

It would be reasonable to limit the number of rounds (of each type) that the player can shoot. HE/VT and Smoke should be generous. ICM should be limited, and FASCAM tightly controlled (a FASCAM target should be assigned to a trigger and a specific spot, no FOO gets to drop mines wherever the hell he wants) It would also be reasonable to have a mechanism where a player can trigger extra arty ammo (or maybe have it pushed to him if higher thinks his target is worth it) if it is in the scenario - and probably at a scoring penalty.

It would also be reasonable to have a scenario flag for "operating in a counter-battery environment" that limits the clock time a mission can last and sets a delay for when the battery can accept missions again. The "max mission length" and "setup delay" should be controlled by the scenario designer. Once you fire a mission, you have to get it done in the time allotted, and you aren't going to get to shoot again until the time required for the guns to move someplace else and get set up again. Plus they will have broken lay and all the data will be (mostly) garbage, so initial accuracy would be a little iffy until the error was shot out of the guns.

That would provide enough realism to keep the guns from being magic death machines, but not start exposing a Coy sized commander to decisions that are being made at Bde or higher.

It would NOT be reasonable to have your guns go away because they had been "shot by counterbattery fire" - except MAYBE if the player had triggered an override function that made the guns stay put and keep firing longer than the max mission time. Every minute longer they are forced to stay put could result in a random, cumulative chance that they'd get knocked out. MAYBE. I'n not sure a Coy commander could get the guns to expose themselves to that degree of risk without a personal appeal to the Commander.

I'm also not particularly excited by on-map artillery. To be honest, I don't think it fits the scale. If the guns are on the map, it is because they are lost (again!) not by design.

DG

[Gibsonm]

An M777 can do some amazing things though; not least of which is fast set-up time and greater accuracy than an M109.

DG

Sure but compared to a Pnz 2000 its still pretty much a Napoleonic muzzle loader.

[Grenny]

Greetings all,

Ref the shoot and scoot options:

During the time period of most of the missions that are currently being played (80's time period),

... ...9erRed

Well, only speak for yourself ;-)

On the other hand, most "new time" missions we are working on right now don't have mechanized enemy in them.(more like well concealed enemy inf)

[Tankleader]

Since we are adding to the list, how about adding CRAM, it's pretty effective at taking out bad guy rockets and other things here in Baghdad. It's a ground based Phalanx system. Pretty cool when you see it in action.